The Place of the Reign of Edward II, in English History: Based Upon the Ford Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford in 1913 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Place of the Reign of Edward II, in English History: Based Upon the Ford Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford in 1913This book is an expansion and re-arrangement of the Ford Lectures, delivered by me at Oxford in the Hilary term, 1913. It differs, however, considerably from the text of the lectures. This is largely because of my conviction that there is an essential diversity of aim and method between oral discourses and a printed book, which should compel in all cases a certain readjustment of treatment and focus, when the former are made the basis of the latter. I have not indeed scrupled to retain conversational turns of phrase, and other features which suggest the spoken rather than the written word. But in revising the course for the press I have thought it desirable to enter into much greater detail than was possible, or expedient, in a short course of lectures, and to add a large number of notes and two long appendices, which necessarily could not, even in rough outline, be put before the most long suffering of academic audiences. In both the lectures and the book, a general familiarity has been assumed with the ordinary political and constitutional history of the reign. There has been no need to relate once more a narrative which has been often told already. The last two chapters of the book are essentially an addition, being a free expansion of two or three paragraphs only of the last lecture. In these chapters, notably as regards the dealings of Clement V with Gascony and the whole genesis of the compulsory staple system, the story has been related at some length, because, so far as I know, it has never before been told. Generally however, I have aimed, not so much at narrative, as the setting forth of a special point of view 7. I give details only when they seem to be directly illustrative of that point of view.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.